Prime Ventures invests in Creative Group

June 2019

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands - Creative Group announces €22 million in funding from Prime Ventures. The Dutch fintech company offers customers the opportunity to digitally buy or send prepaid credit to spend with their favourite brands. Leading European venture capitalist Prime Ventures is the sole investor in this round, acquiring a minority stake in the company.

Creative Group makes digital top-up fast, safe and simple for consumers around the world. Their solution combines a highly scalable, proprietary-based tech platform with distribution power via online marketing. This enables brands to easily tap into large new markets and discover new customer segments globally. With their labels Recharge.com and Rapido.com, Creative Group has the ambition to reach a sales volume of €200 million by the end of the year.

Rapido is the fast-growing online top-up store offering a broad selection of e-vouchers from brands including iTunes, Google, Spotify, Xbox and PlayStation for top-up users. Rapido processes and delivers digital codes, that consumers buy online to use as credit for prepaid services from their favourite brands. The service is now available in 13 countries.

Based on the same proprietary technology, Creative Group started a remittance business in 2016 that focuses on delivering a service to immigrants for cross-border remittances of call and data credits. Recharge.com is already available in 130 countries, with 600 operators. Recharge.com was named the winner for the 2018 Fintech category of the Deloitte Fast 50 in the Netherlands. In the near future, Recharge plans to be the most convenient way to recharge and pay for all major living cost from anywhere, by anyone and at any time.

"We are an official digital distributor for some of the world’s most powerful brands," explains Günther Vogelpoel, CEO of Creative Group. The fact that these large companies trust Creative Group to sell their products online, was a major factor for Prime Ventures to invest in the fintech scale-up. Vogelpoel: "We are excited to have Prime Ventures on board. With the growth capital they invest, we are able to further accelerate our growth internationally. Their knowledge, vast network, and international contacts will enable us to meet our goal of becoming the global leader in the digital top-up market."

With the recent funding, Creative Group plans to accelerate its global rollout. "We will push hard and expand fast. By the end of 2020, Rapido.com will be available in 30 countries all over the world and Recharge.com plans to become the alternative for money transfer by offering more household utility credits like energy, wifi and satellite tv,” says Vogelpoel. Additionally, he is looking to invest further into the team. Over the past two years, Creative Group has already grown from 25 to 100 employees. “We will hire more hungry professionals who want to be part of our unique adventure. However, as our platform is very scalable, I don’t expect to grow to 500 people anytime soon.”